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Dispatches from Elsewhere (available on AMC, YouTube TV and Sling)
(Full spoilers ahead)
Is "Dispatches from Elsewhere" a love letter to the power of personal connection, or the massively expensive self-indulgent passion project of a (relatively major) TV/film star?
The answer to that question depends on your tolerance for playfulness in your narratives. "Dispatches from Elsewhere" is a TV series with questionable boundaries between fiction and reality baked into the premise. It's based on a real-life role playing game that star Jason Segel discovered at the tail end of a long, downward personal spiral. Segel makes no attempt to hide that "Peter" is a mildly fictional version of himself and most of the events of the series are based on his real-life experiences with the game. The audience is constantly kept in the dark whether what's happening to the characters is part of the random chaos of life or a construct provided by the Jejune Institute. Every time you think they've stripped down to "reality," another level reveals itself.
I realize that a good number of you out there are saying: "Holy crap, this sounds unbearable." And if you have no patience for this type of mindfuck, stop reading here. For the rest of you: Segel and his writing team do an excellent job of immersing the audience in the game, following the clues along with the characters, keeping the aspect of "is this real?" in play without slowing down the action.
Segel is helped, in a big way, by his three co-stars. (In fact, of the four main characters, "Peter" is probably the weakest.) Simone (Eve Lindley) is Peter's guide through the initial stages of the game, urging him to explore and jabbing at him to shake off his empty, routine life. Lindley's role is "smart mouthed truth teller" at first, but as we go deeper into the series, Lindley effectively sells Simone's emotional vulnerability. (She's built the hard shell around herself to deflect the abuse directed at a trans woman; can she break it down enough to make new friendships and start a romantic relationship with Peter?)
The ringer in the cast is Sally Field as Janice, a Philadelphia housewife searching for personal fulfillment after a lifetime of taking care of her family. Field's strength here isn't necessarily in solo scenes (where an Oscar winning legend can show off); Field shines as a part of the ensemble, making her co-stars look good. She forms a badass sisterhood team with Simone, mothers Peter, and tries to pull Fredwynn (Andre Benjamin) back to reality when he's disappearing inside his own head.
Fredwynn, though, is my favorite. He's the character who constantly questions the reality of events around him, relentlessly digs through levels of misdirection and conspiracy, hoping to find one unshakeable, absolute truth that will set them all free. He's a Fox Mulder for the 2020s--imperious, brilliant and obsessive--and Benjamin just kills. Fredwynn is perfectly aware that his quest for capital T truth alienates him from people who could be good friends, but his mind simply won't let him rest. In the penultimate episode, Fredwynn takes us on the ultimate trip down the rabbit hole, stripping away the layers of unreality, until he comes to the only possible conclusion: his entire world is a fiction. His mind becomes trapped in the liminal space between the fictional world of "Dispatches from Elsewhere" and our world until Janice (because who can resist Sally Field?) pulls him out. It is an absolute tour de force for Benjamin.
So, with the fourth wall completely shattered, how do you go on?
For the final episode, Segel loops us around to the beginning, and how he was inspired to create the series.
And this is where we run into problems.
Throughout the series, the running thread through all the storylines has been the value of personal connections, how the game helps our four main characters stop living inside themselves and reach out to others. But in recounting the origin of the series, Segel makes it all about himself. The extended teaser and first act, the saga of the clown faced boy, is a metaphor for Segel's lifelong love of comedy and his disillusionment with his comedic career. It is too precious by half--and if Segel just cut it and started with adult Jason at the AA meeting, the episode would have been a thousand times better.
Yes, Segel does bring on the entire behind the scenes crew of the series out for a curtain call, and there's even DfE fan videos to show how the series has created a sort of community. But I couldn't help but notice that Field and Benjamin are reduced to cameos in the final episode of their own series, and Lindley is only there to set Jason on his quest. It doesn't come off as "seek out personal connections and change how you see the world!"; it's more like, "rich celebrity was bummed out, then found inspiration."
Was that Segel's intention? No, of course not. He genuinely wanted to show how much this series changed his outlook in life, and to pass that lesson on to the audience. But, in the end, maybe the first nine episodes do the job better than his Very Personal Message.
Episodes 1-9: A-
Episode 10: C
Overall rating: B
(Full spoilers ahead)
Is "Dispatches from Elsewhere" a love letter to the power of personal connection, or the massively expensive self-indulgent passion project of a (relatively major) TV/film star?
The answer to that question depends on your tolerance for playfulness in your narratives. "Dispatches from Elsewhere" is a TV series with questionable boundaries between fiction and reality baked into the premise. It's based on a real-life role playing game that star Jason Segel discovered at the tail end of a long, downward personal spiral. Segel makes no attempt to hide that "Peter" is a mildly fictional version of himself and most of the events of the series are based on his real-life experiences with the game. The audience is constantly kept in the dark whether what's happening to the characters is part of the random chaos of life or a construct provided by the Jejune Institute. Every time you think they've stripped down to "reality," another level reveals itself.
I realize that a good number of you out there are saying: "Holy crap, this sounds unbearable." And if you have no patience for this type of mindfuck, stop reading here. For the rest of you: Segel and his writing team do an excellent job of immersing the audience in the game, following the clues along with the characters, keeping the aspect of "is this real?" in play without slowing down the action.
Segel is helped, in a big way, by his three co-stars. (In fact, of the four main characters, "Peter" is probably the weakest.) Simone (Eve Lindley) is Peter's guide through the initial stages of the game, urging him to explore and jabbing at him to shake off his empty, routine life. Lindley's role is "smart mouthed truth teller" at first, but as we go deeper into the series, Lindley effectively sells Simone's emotional vulnerability. (She's built the hard shell around herself to deflect the abuse directed at a trans woman; can she break it down enough to make new friendships and start a romantic relationship with Peter?)
The ringer in the cast is Sally Field as Janice, a Philadelphia housewife searching for personal fulfillment after a lifetime of taking care of her family. Field's strength here isn't necessarily in solo scenes (where an Oscar winning legend can show off); Field shines as a part of the ensemble, making her co-stars look good. She forms a badass sisterhood team with Simone, mothers Peter, and tries to pull Fredwynn (Andre Benjamin) back to reality when he's disappearing inside his own head.
Fredwynn, though, is my favorite. He's the character who constantly questions the reality of events around him, relentlessly digs through levels of misdirection and conspiracy, hoping to find one unshakeable, absolute truth that will set them all free. He's a Fox Mulder for the 2020s--imperious, brilliant and obsessive--and Benjamin just kills. Fredwynn is perfectly aware that his quest for capital T truth alienates him from people who could be good friends, but his mind simply won't let him rest. In the penultimate episode, Fredwynn takes us on the ultimate trip down the rabbit hole, stripping away the layers of unreality, until he comes to the only possible conclusion: his entire world is a fiction. His mind becomes trapped in the liminal space between the fictional world of "Dispatches from Elsewhere" and our world until Janice (because who can resist Sally Field?) pulls him out. It is an absolute tour de force for Benjamin.
So, with the fourth wall completely shattered, how do you go on?
For the final episode, Segel loops us around to the beginning, and how he was inspired to create the series.
And this is where we run into problems.
Throughout the series, the running thread through all the storylines has been the value of personal connections, how the game helps our four main characters stop living inside themselves and reach out to others. But in recounting the origin of the series, Segel makes it all about himself. The extended teaser and first act, the saga of the clown faced boy, is a metaphor for Segel's lifelong love of comedy and his disillusionment with his comedic career. It is too precious by half--and if Segel just cut it and started with adult Jason at the AA meeting, the episode would have been a thousand times better.
Yes, Segel does bring on the entire behind the scenes crew of the series out for a curtain call, and there's even DfE fan videos to show how the series has created a sort of community. But I couldn't help but notice that Field and Benjamin are reduced to cameos in the final episode of their own series, and Lindley is only there to set Jason on his quest. It doesn't come off as "seek out personal connections and change how you see the world!"; it's more like, "rich celebrity was bummed out, then found inspiration."
Was that Segel's intention? No, of course not. He genuinely wanted to show how much this series changed his outlook in life, and to pass that lesson on to the audience. But, in the end, maybe the first nine episodes do the job better than his Very Personal Message.
Episodes 1-9: A-
Episode 10: C
Overall rating: B
